I saw right through her now after the second drag. “You want me to train him.”
“He’s already signed the contract,” she said. “I could assign him to one of the other guys, but I see the way the two of you were, you had a—a dynamic. Right?”
“Wehad,” I said. “I don’t think that’s going to fly with him anymore. He’s a different beast now.” This one cigarette alone was better than any breakfast, especially after the night I’d had. Cigarettes were somewhat banned in Sanctum because of the smell—so a lot of people addicted were hooked on those little nicotine gums.
“I’m not going to force you into it,” she said. “Like I said, there are plenty of other guys out there who could.”
“You could get Serena or someone.”
She laughed, it was meant to mock. “He needs someone with a firm hand, and someone he can try fuck, or—wait.” She walked around me and spun me in her chair. “You already fucked, didn’t you?”
“What makes you think that?” I asked, blowing smoke at her, but she seemed to eat it.
“Donovan, we go way back, I can read you like a children’s book, only pictures,” she said. “I can at least check off that he’s gotten laid, I was beginning to get worried watching him.”
Perked up. “He didn’t—he didn’t get laid?”
“No, he was practically averse to anything but internet porn and a handful of Jergens,” she said.
“And you sick fucks watched?” I laughed. “Send me a recording.”
“Obviously not,” she said. “But I still haven’t heard an answer from you.”
“If I say yes, what happens?”
“He becomes yours during his training.”
“Mine?”
She nodded, as if discovering my tongue on the verge of sayingyes. “All the good, all the bad, he’s yours. For the training period, and then I can decide where he’s placed.”
“Does he know your training stops him from being a free agent and becomes one of yours?”
“Exclusivity was—” she shrugged. “I think it was mentioned somewhere. I can’t be too sure, but he signed it. So, he must’ve read it on—say, page fifty-one.”
“Fuck it,” I said, I knew he’d hate it, and I knew I had a lot of making up. “I’ll do it, but one condition.”
“Good, name your condition. And remember, bend him, don’t break him.”
I stood up in front of her, short while she was in those stilettos. I sucked on the end of the cigarette once more before stubbing it out on her glass table. “I’ll train him for you, but after it’s all done, he gets a set of assignments he’s got to do for you to work off the training debt I’m assuming you’ve bundled in with the exclusivity.”
Mercy smirked. “Details, details,” she said. “Consider it done.”
We shook on it.
***
Three heavy bangs to Artemis’s door, and the biggest smirk on my face.His sleepy head answered, rubbing his eyes and yawning. He perked up seeing me, only to roll his eyes.
“What do you want?” he asked, stretching his arms up and lifting his t-shirt.
I hooked a finger under his t-shirt, pushing it higher to see more of his torso. “I just wanted to say, you’re mine.”
“Yours?”
“Mine,” I said slower and nodding.
“You’re finally asking me to marry you then, huh?” he clicked his tongue, looking me up and down. Leaving him had made him bitter, and that look in his eye, those daggers—if weapons were allowed, he’d have cut through me into chunks.
